Following the previous article on the main areas of evolution in CRM, today we’ll be detailing CRM Automation, since this is one of the areas with greater focus on this type of business solutions, and also because it represents an important step to ensure the implementation effectiveness.
Despite talking about this topic under the CRM scope, this subject is also applicable to other business solutions, since automation plays a predominant role in the optimization of any solution that requires information from different sources including its users. The measures shown here may not be appropriate for other solutions, however the concept remains relevant.
Why CRM automation?
The optimization of business processes in the areas of sales, support and marketing, leveraged by a need to centralize and streamline information to increase product and service quality, generated increased information needs in all business solutions and the CRM was no exception. In this advent, data-entry tasks and information quality gained a lot of relevance but also produced an increase of effort, which, although necessary cannot be excessive, due to the risk of generating a new optimization problem.
CRM automation emerges in this context, fitting into the business processes and daily activities of each area professionals, in order to reduce the effort on systems updating, without compromising crucial information to ensure organizational performance.
Main measures of CRM automation
The following measures are safe assets to guarantee the efficiency and effectiveness of CRM solutions, ensuring the quality of the system information and at same time reducing employee’s effort in data-entry and update tasks.
Integration with productivity tools
Supported by leading CRM manufacturers such as Zoho, SugarCRM, Dynamics CRM or Salesforce, allows integration with the most popular productivity suites such as Office or Gmail, ensuring integration of email, calendar and documents, which allows you to synchronize meetings, emails or tasks automatically.
Workflows and customizations
An effective way to ensure information integrity through the provided CRM solution mechanisms, such as, automatic pipeline progression when each phase objectives are fulfilled, automatic filling and updating of fields according to the business rules or the creation and automatic assignment of tasks due to SLA or other business driven objectives.
Mobile Apps
Particularly important to commercial areas, mobile apps are also part of the main CRM packages, ensuring integration with maps, phone and tasks. In addition to the benefits of bringing the CRM in your pocket, allowing you to check contacts, interactions, addresses or proposals, and update information without having to go to the office.
Information intelligence partners
Integrations with businesses that provide information from companies such as D&B or ZoomInfo, allowing autocomplete and automatic fill of CRM information, facilitating the process of creating records and avoiding duplicate creation and data inconsistencies.
AI Chatbots
Specially relevant for marketing and support, AI Chatbots or their workflow based versions allow you to carry out basic tasks, directing the client on the intended topics without requiring the allocation of resources. In addition to provide guidance and relevant feedback, based on native language in the case of AI Chatbots, it offers a direct channel to the customer, significantly increasing the interaction and attractiveness of the business.
If there are other measures that you consider more relevant, or you wish to know more about this topic, leave a comment or reach us through the available channels.
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